North-easterners with angular geetarz Dartz! are to tour their ickle socks off in September across a series of dates the band are calling "a tour of small venues".

Yes.

The three-piece, whose acclaimed This Is My Ship LP is out now on Xtra Mile, have already toured alongside the likes of Hot Club De Paris and I Was A Cub Scout. In addition to the dates below, they are to play a special DiS show at London's Monto Water Rats on August 31. Details follow September dates.

On August 31, the band play DiS's end-of-summer party at the Monto Water Rats, London. Also on the bill: Eugene McGuinness, Youthmovies, I Was A Cub Scout and Russian Circles. DJ action from 65daysofstatic. More details and tickets here.

Says the band's Henry Carden of the September tour and Dartz!'s plan to take a break after them:

“We wanted to do a tour of small venues, with the gigs being put on by DIY promoters who helped us out when we first started the band. For the most part, they might not be the kind of places that you would ordinarily expect to see us playing these days – but for our last UK dates for a while, we wanted to do things our way.

“As much as we’ve loved doing some of the bigger tours that we’ve done, you lose a lot of control. Ticket prices can start to feel a bit uncomfortable, support bands just seem to be chosen at random by a suit in an office and a lot of the venues have a complete lack of character or soul. One thing you can’t accuse The Jockey in Wakefield of is lacking character!

“When we started the band at the beginning of 2005, we never imagined for one moment that it was going to become such a massive part of our lives. I’m glad it did, because it’s been an incredible experience, but for us to progress musically and for us to make sure that album two is even better than album one, we feel that we need to take a bit of time out to concentrate on some non-band things. Philip and William are both off to Uni, and I’ll be forcing nu-rave kids to listen to Fleetwood Mac in Middlesbrough’s finest night spot. There’s talk of heading back over to Spain before the year ends and possibly going to the USA and Canada early next year, but as for UK dates, these September gigs may be our last for a while. We’ll see…”

In related news, Dartz! have signed to Deep Elm in the US. This Is My Ship will be released there later this year, and is also due for release in Japan.